Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, one of the Bush administration's most steadfast allies in South America, was allegedly a "close personal friend" of slain drug lord Pablo Escobar and worked for his Medellin cartel, according to a newly released U.S. military intelligence report. The 1991 report by the Defense Intelligence Agency describes Uribe, then a rising political star in Colombia, as being "dedicated to collaboration" with the Medellin cartel at the time the world's richest...

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, one of the Bush administration's most steadfast allies in South America, was allegedly a "close personal friend" of slain drug lord Pablo Escobar and worked for his Medellin cartel, according to a newly released U.S. military intelligence report. The 1991 report by the Defense Intelligence Agency describes Uribe, then a rising political star in Colombia, as being "dedicated to collaboration" with the Medellin cartel at the time the world's richest...

Colombia freed a founder of the Medellin cartel on Friday, 5 1/2 years into his sentence in a drug-trafficking ring that killed hundreds of people and flooded Europe and the U.S. with cocaine. Jorge Luis Ochoa's release angered U.S. officials, who last week requested the extradition of four Cali cartel kingpins, arguing the Colombian justice system is too lenient on traffickers. "It's lamentable that he served such a short sentence," said U.S. Ambassador Myles...

Supreme Court judges cleared the way Tuesday for an alleged drug boss to become the first Colombian extradited to the United States in nearly 10 years. In a unanimous decision, nine Supreme Court magistrates approved a U.S. request to extradite Jaime Orlando Lara, who is accused of shipping heroin to U.S. cities. If the government of President Andres Pastrana approves the U.S. extradition request, Lara will become the first Colombian to be extradited since 1990....

He may have lost a few pounds and grown a thick beard, but some residents of this farming village say their dead patron, the cocaine king, is alive and well and plotting his return. Colombian and U.S. officials say Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, a leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel, was killed by police in December 1989. His head was blown apart, his fingerprints were taken to ensure identification and his body was quickly buried in the local cemetery. But some residents say Gacha...

Colombia freed a founder of the Medellin cartel on Friday, 5 1/2 years into his sentence in a drug-trafficking ring that killed hundreds of people and flooded Europe and the U.S. with cocaine. Jorge Luis Ochoa's release angered U.S. officials, who last week requested the extradition of four Cali cartel kingpins, arguing the Colombian justice system is too lenient on traffickers. "It's lamentable that he served such a short sentence," said U.S. Ambassador Myles...

The McMahon trade gets front-page headlines in The Tribune on Aug. 19, and the assassination of Waldemar Franklin Quintero gets page 9. The killing of Quintero, the Colombian provincial police chief who had led a campaign against drug dealers, was blamed on the Medellin cartel, which is believed responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States. Is it not sad that this is where our priorities seem to lie? Let's challenge ourselves to broaden our understanding of the world and what we need...

President Ernesto Samper Pizano sets off metal detectors in airports, he says, the result of four bullets still lodged in his body from an assassination attempt by cocaine traffickers six years ago. Nonetheless, Samper long has been plagued by charges he took money from drug traffickers. Now the beleaguered president says the arrest of the head of the Cali cartel is nothing less than vindication for him and his administration. "When I found out about the capture, I felt a sense of...

Colombia's violent Medellin cartel claimed responsibility Thursday for the kidnapping of the managing editor of the influential daily El Tiempo and another prominent journalist who is the daughter of a former president, the top news executive of El Tiempo said. The separate kidnappings of El Tiempo managing editor Francisco Santos, 28, and Diana Turbay, managing editor of the magazine Hoy Por Hoy and daughter of former president Julio C. Turbay Ayala, have shocked...

Empathize with Chicago publicist Marilyn Liss, who reports her cellular phone number was "cloned" three times in a six-week span. She got a $1,700 phone bill, 20 feet long, for calls she didn't make. Cloners sweep the air with radio scanners to reel in personal codes beeped by mobile phones at the start of every call. The pirates then program phones with these codes, tricking the computer into billing you for their calls. The cellular industry absorbs the fraud-at a cost of up to $300 million a year, Cellular...

Cocaine traffickers flew up to $22 million in drug money from Florida to Panama City for laundering every week in the early 1980s, an admitted money launderer for the Medellin cartel testified on Wednesday in Manuel Ortega Noriega's trial. Eric Humberto Guerra said his organization scheduled a regular Tuesday flight from Ft. Lauderdale carrying $10 million to $15 million. A similar laundering service for drug kingpin Jorge Ochoa was flying from Ft. Lauderdale twice a week, he said.

Manuel Antonio Noriega cooperated with U.S. drug agents against small-time drug dealers in Panama while protecting close associates who were major drug traffickers, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent testified on Monday in Noriega's trial. James Bramble, who served as DEA station chief in Panama from 1982 to 1984, said he realized Panamanian officials were offering only limited cooperation when he began to develop independent sources of information. He said informants told...

Manuel Antonio Noriega cooperated with U.S. drug agents against small-time drug dealers in Panama while protecting close associates who were major drug traffickers, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent testified on Monday in Noriega's trial. James Bramble, who served as DEA station chief in Panama from 1982 to 1984, said he realized Panamanian officials were offering only limited cooperation when he began to develop independent sources of information. He said informants told...

Manuel Antonio Noriega provided "unprecedented" assistance to U.S. anti-drug efforts during the same period federal prosecutors say he was accepting millions in bribes from the Medellin cocaine cartel, a defense attorney said on Monday. "The level and quality of assistance given by Gen. Noriega to the United States was unprecedented among the leaders of Central and South America," attorney Jon May told a 12-member federal jury as the defense opened its case. May portrayed his...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) The government's case against alleged cocaine kingpin Carlos Lehder Rivas is only "a masquerade of horrors" designed to convict him of drug-smuggling at any cost, the defense said in opening arguments Tuesday. Defense attorney Edward Shohat maintained that Lehder is a businessman interested only in developing an island paradise on Norman's Cay in the Bahamas and selling aircraft. He accused the government of pulling out all stops in its effort to paint Lehder...

Cocaine traffickers flew up to $22 million in drug money from Florida to Panama City for laundering every week in the early 1980s, an admitted money launderer for the Medellin cartel testified on Wednesday in Manuel Ortega Noriega's trial. Eric Humberto Guerra said his organization scheduled a regular Tuesday flight from Ft. Lauderdale carrying $10 million to $15 million. A similar laundering service for drug kingpin Jorge Ochoa was flying from Ft. Lauderdale twice a week, he said.

Empathize with Chicago publicist Marilyn Liss, who reports her cellular phone number was "cloned" three times in a six-week span. She got a $1,700 phone bill, 20 feet long, for calls she didn't make. Cloners sweep the air with radio scanners to reel in personal codes beeped by mobile phones at the start of every call. The pirates then program phones with these codes, tricking the computer into billing you for their calls. The cellular industry absorbs the fraud-at a cost of up to $300 million a year, Cellular...

Max Mermelstein, the government's leadoff witness against Manuel Noriega, testified Tuesday that he met with an emissary of the Panamanian dictator in 1983 to arrange landing rights for drug and money flights for the Medellin cartel. The go-between, reportedly a woman named Balbina Perinan, is now a legislator in Panama's national assembly. Mermelstein, a 47-year-old Brooklyn native, pleaded guilty several years ago to smuggling 55 tons of cocaine into southern California.

Supreme Court judges cleared the way Tuesday for an alleged drug boss to become the first Colombian extradited to the United States in nearly 10 years. In a unanimous decision, nine Supreme Court magistrates approved a U.S. request to extradite Jaime Orlando Lara, who is accused of shipping heroin to U.S. cities. If the government of President Andres Pastrana approves the U.S. extradition request, Lara will become the first Colombian to be extradited since 1990....

She was a 32-year-old yuppie who took on the world's most dangerous criminals. For three months in 1989, Monica de Greiff, the tall, blond Colombian justice minister, stood toe-to-toe with the ruthless and powerful Medellin cocaine cartel at the height of her nation's drug war. It was one of the world's most dangerous jobs. And it was a mismatch: the youthful lawyer battling an army of assassins backed by billions of dollars in drug money. In the previous three years, cartel gunmen had killed a...